Tag Archives: inspiration

True: Sometimes, it flies out of her, like a butterfly trapped in between the two tiny palms of a kiddo who hasn’t lived for long enough to realize the fragility of her dreams, yet.

“You can’t do that to butterflies, little one! They break their wings.”

But other times, she must cradle the cocoons of her beginnings, checking up on them, every few breaths: Are they ready for the magical reveal of their births yet? Can they leap out at the world that didn’t even suspect how much it needed them? On harder days of creation, the luxury of time begins to test her patience, and it challenges her — to start. To just: Start.

Because starting — takes a courageous flight of fancy. And only she knows — because she has asked for her creator to allow and to forgive her the hubris to make things happen — only she knows when her beginnings can no longer wait to happen.

The days, the moments, the creations that begin easily — are often easier to also take for granted. And they can’t really be trusted, actually. But the easy creations lighten the step and color the world with more flattering palettes of her imagination. And even though, she may not remember the achievement of that day, she gets the privilege of spending it — while half dreaming: Still the little girl, chasing butterflies, and trapping them in between her tiny palms.

Gratitude comes easy on those days of nearly no struggle. And she breathes through the misty sensation in her eyes: After all, her compassion has not expired yet! And despite all the losses, it continues to give back.

On luckier days, life permits for such illusions to last: That people are good. That art — matters. That beauty — is a common addiction of all humankind. And that perhaps (please, please, let her have this “perhaps”!) we all speak a common language which may be determined by our self-serving needs — but that those needs belong to LOVE. Alas! How marvelous — are those days!

And she learns to savor them! The days of easier creation — of more graceful survival, when the whole world somehow happens to accommodate for her dreams — those days she must savor for the future. Because in that future, as she has grown to accept (once she’s grown up and out of certain dreams), there will be days of hardship. She knows that. No, not just the hardships of life itself: Those, she has by now learned to forgive. After all, they have taught her her own humanity. They have connected all the capillaries between the organs of her empathy and inspirations. And she understands it all so much better — after the days of hard life.

But the hardships of persevering through life for long enough to get to the next easier moment — that task can only be done by eluding herself. So, she suspends the memories of better days. Easier days of creation. She stretches them out, makes them last. (They taste like soft caramel or bits of saltwater taffy.) She rides them out to exhaustion and prays — oh, how she prays! — that they will bring her to the next beginning.

Then, there are days, seemingly mellow, but that do not grant her easy beginnings. On those days, she must work. She must earn the first sentences to her dreams and earn her beginnings. She may go looking for inspiration, in other people’s art. And sometimes, that works just fine: Like a match to a dry wick, other art sets her imagination on fire. All it takes is a glimpse of a tail of that one fleeting dream. It takes a mere crumb of someone else’s creation to set off the memory and the inspiration — follows. Just a whisper of that common language! A whiff of the unproved metaphysical science that it’s all one. We — are one. (Is that silly?)

And when the art of others does not start another flame, then she must have the courage to begin. Just simply — begin! It’s mechanical, then: a memorized choreography of fingers upon the keyboard, the sense memory of the tired fingers clutching a pen. On those days, she merely shows up — and she must accept that it would be enough, on just those days.

Because if she doesn’t show up, then she may as well consider herself defeated: Yes, by the struggles of life and the skepticism of those who do NOT have the courage to dream. To start. To begin.

The courage to remain the children they once were, also chasing butterflies and ice-cream men; sucking on icicles in the winter and building castles under the watch of the giant eye of the sun.

The day when she stops beginning — she will consider herself a failure. But until then, she must continue to begin.

There are days when it’s hard to clock in. But then, I see a single human face — and I’m on a roll.

Like the luminous face of a woman who, yesterday, made me wonder about my aging self.

She would have otherwise be found plain: Quite tall and long-limbed, in unmemorable clothes. A pair of ballet flats, a pencil skirt and a V-neck, all in jewel colors. That’s exactly how my eyes travelled too, along her thin body: from the ground, up to her face. From humility, up to humanity. And then, they got stuck. On her face.

Under the haircut of no longer than two inches that was bleached to camouflage the gray, her face was completely open. Readable, as if I expected to find my own reflection in it. Having not a dab of make-up on her — like she had nothing to hide — she seemed incredibly open and present. Up for anything.

“Like someone possessed by a clear conscience,” I thought.

“I didn’t expect you to be so petite and, um, lovely,” she said to me. It was our first meeting.

I can always tell. Especially when it comes to other broads, I can always tell when I’m being fed some insincere bullshit. And then, I can always tell when a woman means it; when she’s got no time — or in my case, no tolerance — for competition; and she’s got a sister’s better interest in mind. And I tell you, compliments from such a broad are a better ego treatment than a week-long stay at a beauty spa with, say, Olivier Martinez as your lover.

So, when she said that — I was hooked. First, I studied her well nourished skin with seemingly no trace of plastic surgery, and I pinpointed the gist of her: She was a happy one. She had done the work. That hard work one’s gotta do on herself in order to not be tortured with doubt, jealousy or self-loathing. She had the balls to be happy, to like herself, and by extension (or by my hubristic assumption that I was heading in the same direction), she seemed to like me just fine, too.

I was about to learn in one, two, three minutes — she was also a writer. It must be a common thing among artists, writers especially: We just can’t fucking give up on people. We cannot NOT like them.

Like every other fucker, over the course of a life, we acquire a history of letdowns and opinions. Every heartbreak hurts equally. After enough shit has been handed to us, though, some of us learn to pray to our Zen deities and pretend to surrender all control over the matter. But I suspect the truth is a lot more painful: Each fuck-up hits us below the belt and we hate it. Because by definition of our craft, we cannot lead with disappointment. We ought to stay in love with humanity, or at least in awe of it.

And why CAN’T people live up to their goodness? Surely, they had to be good at one point. It’s kind of a universal thing in the beginning: We are born good. We remain good for a while, and complete strangers get sidetracked at the sight of our still undamaged faces.

I wondered that as I studied the face of a babe who was being carried across the street by her father. She was little. Too little for me to remember what it felt like — to be her. Too young to have a palpable fear of time.

Facing out, over the man’s shoulder, the young girl was moving her mouth and pressing her plum cheek against her father’s stubble.

“That man’s heart is forever taken,” I thought.

The seconds on their walkway sign were about to expire, but the two creatures — one still innocent, the other one living vicariously through her — were so engrossed in their chat, they were hardly among us. Finally, by the time the man began jogging slightly, with his daughter bouncing uncomfortably in his arms (he had to be still training for such new functions of his body), they crossed in front of my left headlight. Two more lanes of traffic — and they would be safe.

Bouncing on her father’s arm, the girl noticed me. The green of her eyes got stuck to my heart. I waved, timidly, with one hand. Hesitantly but innocently, she squeezed her tiny left fist, then released it, and squeezed it again. She was imitating my gesture. She was still good. Up for anything.

There is a spirit, in certain women, that lives so powerfully — it resurrects my own ways.

I have loved many of such women, in my life: They are essential to my every breath.

And they always have a special talent for obeying the time clock to my own destiny, whose ticking I often fail to understand. Still, I seek them, by intuition — whenever in need of inspiration (or, of just a confirmation, really, that I am still getting it all right).

Sometimes, they reappear whenever I have a reason to celebrate. But only in the most dire of my moments, do they seem to unite, unanimously, and come to the forefront of my days as a magnificent army of undefeatable souls.

There is a woman with her hair on fire: She lives at a halfway point between the two coasts of my identify. At any given time of every day, she is an expert at whipping up a meal soon after making love; and as her lovers, we make for one doomed lot because she will not happen to any of us, again.

Instead of breakfast, she begins each day with a party. At a round table of her restaurant, she often shares a drink with her clients and her staff, late into the night. She drives fast and laughs for so long, the windows begin to rattle like an orchestra of chimes. Her fire-engine red lips are never smeared. And god forbid, she tames her hair into anything more modest.

“When in doubt — be generous,” she says. “Generous and kind.” Nothing has disobeyed her love. And no one — can overcome the kindness.

She is all that: magnificent, magnanimous, braver than the rest and always in the heart of every love.

To each — her own way.

An erudite poetess with African hair sends me postcards every once in a while, from the Mediterranean coast where she retreats to rest her skin from the abrasive gazes her beauty attracts. From a writers’ colony, with wooden cots and tables by the window, she writes to me in stanzas.

“At work,” she’ll say.

And she will mean: RESPECT.

In her profession, I have known no equals; and in the written word, she is much further than me: always ahead, as it testing the ground that I am meant to follow. She is political, on edge, and often absolute. She is a socialist in success: Others, she believes, must benefit.

Her people: They have suffered way too much. And so, she prowls, proudly: paving the way, pounding the ground. And it is worth the awe to see her never skips a step or stumbles.

“TO NEVER APOLOGIZE,” — she has tattooed upon her forehead (and she scribble that on mine).

In stanzas! She often writes to me — in stanzas, even when writing about the most mundane, like laundry or her lover’s breathing. And I watch her, moving through the world of men with a grace that is so undeniably female.

To each — her own way. To each — her own manner.

The woman that shadows all of my most difficult choices with patience worthy of saint: She has been bound to me by some unwritten, never negotiated rule of sisterhood. With her, I’m never orphaned. With her, I’m never-ever afraid; and life — is not unjust. She is the kindest one I’ve known. The worthiest — that I have ever loved.

It’s not that she hasn’t witnessed others error. No doubt, she has seen me lose my own ways, as well.

“Don’t you ever question?” I used to challenge her, in my youthful disobedience.

“Question?”

“I dunno. Question the purpose? The faith? The validity of it all?”

At every significant marker of each year, “God bless you,” she jots down, with a steady hand. From her lips — and from her hand — these words never acquire comedy or scorn. To speak the truth. To call each thing by its own name. She’s fine with that. But the cost — alas, the cost — she never loses the sight of human cost.

Once, long ago, her hand had gotten lost in my growing out mane. She had a mother’s touch. With her, I’m never orphaned.

“Remember this!” I thought to myself, but all too soon, I drifted off to sleep.

I had a dream last night: of walking into a room full of beautiful women.

Some of them, I’ve known for years; a few of them for long enough to have forgotten their faces. Some of the other faces could’ve belonged to my future, perhaps.

When I entered through the door with chipping white paint — a door that was more obedient to the pull of gravity than that of its rusty hinges — every woman looked up at me: A stunning constellation of loving, familiar eyes sprawled before me; each pair of eyes — with its own story of similar pathos that have led us all to the common denominator of womanhood.

A tearful redhead sat at the teacher’s desk, up front. I assumed she was leading the classroom. Lines of poetry were written on a blackboard behind her.

“I’d seen her somewhere,” I thought in my sleep.

Perhaps, she borrowed her details from my Russian Lit. professor back in the old country. That one was a tall, mighty blonde that might have stepped off the pages of Nekrasov’s poetry. Or: She could’ve been one of those pre-Napoleon aristocrats, attending a ball in St. Petersburg, while wrapped in the fur of a red fox and emeralds to accentuate her gorgeous green eyes.

Her name was Tatiana. She had a middle name, of course; but in a radical fashion, she demanded we didn’t use it.

“By god, I’m only a few years older than you all!” she’d correct some brown noser testing the air, in class.

True, we were all quite young then, and typically confused. But we had grounds for it though: Our country was falling apart at the seams.

One morning, Tatiana walked into my first class of the day in a solemn mood. Her magnificent hair of a Russian blond beauty was pulled back into a messy bun; and by her eyes, we could tell that she either hadn’t slept or had been crying all morning. Or both.

It was common for Tatiana to bring up politics in class. After all, she belonged to our generation: of curious and passionate, and justifiably confused. But that morning, she would remain silent, stunning all of us with the expectations of the worst. And she would stare out of the window while burying her chin into the cream-colored crocheted shawl wrapped around her magnificent, mighty shoulders.

Inspired by a thought, every once in a while, she would look at us and inhale, as if grasping enough air to deliver the news. Breathlessly, we watched her.

Caution: Courage at work.

But she would lose the train of thought, tear up again and bury her face in the shawl. After the longest minutes of our assuming the worst, Tatiana left the classroom; and none of us would see her again.

But I would — in my last night’s dream, about walking into a room full of beautiful women.

There were a few from my college years: Of various heritages, they were American-born, opinionated and seemingly fearless: The tall one, with an Irish brogue, had been known to lead her life along a courageous path of rebelling against the confines of tradition. The quiet brunette, cradling her little girl in the corner — under a tent of her long East Indian hair — had been burdened with the most gentle of hearts I had ever loved. And I had loved her the most — and oh, for so very long! And I had known the brown, graceful one with the pixie haircut very little back then.

A handful of others came along after my most innocent years of womanhood.

The one who stood up to applaud me had recently left for her homeland: She had always been luminous and proud, in the way of an African queen. She wore a heavy necklace when she left for her odyssey: something borrowed from the neck of Nefertiti. And she wore that again, in my dream.

The poetess who had guided me toward a path of quiet victory had borrowed a headdress from my favorite writer of Caribbean descent. And she walked to the front of the room to introduce me.

I struggled with the door for a moment, then pushed it with my hip. There is nothing in the world that won’t obey a woman’s hip! On it, we bounce our children, or carry the weight of our unhappy burdens. With it, we can dislodge any jam in our way; make a man lose his sleep over it, or find his rest — in its soft curvature.

“Well… That’s been conquered,” I said to the women, once I turned around. They laughed: A sound that may have made me smile in my sleep.

While the laughter subsided, I studied the floor under my feet:

There was none. Just dirt, covered with loose planks of wood; and as I made my way across them, the boards chomped and sank into the wetness. I couldn’t tell where exactly we had gathered that day: Which of our old countries had granted us refuge. But this morning, I had slept in, for a change, missing the sound of my alarm clock and the call of my obligations. And I would have much rather remained dreaming.

Judging from what little profile I can see peaking out from behind her long hair, she could be quite lovely. The lips — puffy and full — are enviable: She’s got that Jolie-esque fold in her lower lip that promises that the size of it — is real. The tiniest tip of her nose right above reminds me of that one exotic berry that starts with an “L”.

Yes, she could be quite lovely; but ever since I’ve walked into this tiny joint, the woman, sitting at the corner table, hasn’t stopped speaking. She’s got her iPhone, plugged into the wall, resting on the table next to two empty coffee cups. Another device — a spinoff of the iPhone — is heavily protected with two plastic cases and a belt clip. She takes turns dialing numbers on both things, and texting on whichever device is not being held up to her ear.

Her language — is foreign, heavily nasal; which makes her voice quite high. And that pitch could be quite lovely if she didn’t sound like she was whining. Whenever she switches to the iPhone, she returns to English; and I wonder if the list of her griefs, in that other nasal language, is similar:

“That guy is an asshole.”

And: “I’ve got no fucking money!”

Oh, I get it, sweetheart: Life’s unfair and hard. But it’s 9:00 o’clock in the morning, and most of us haven’t even finished our coffee yet. You — have had two.

From where I study the menu written on an overhead blackboard, I shoot her a glance. Her hair is frizzy, unevenly straightened. She is wearing jeans with a puffy vest. On her feet, I see those thick-soled, oddly shaped shoes meant to shape a woman’s behind by replacing exercise.

She picks up her iPhone again: The topic of the asshole guy is recycled. Her volume could be quite normal; but the joint is tiny and she attracts attention of every human, still barely awake; including the mustached line cook who, upon my entry, asked me to try a sliver of bacon sizzling in his metal tongs.

“Breakfast, beauty?” he says and I imagine his previous life as a Navy chef.

I smile but then realize half of my face is buried in my heavy knit scarf. So, I lift my chin and smile again.

This morning could be lovely, still.

A pretty hippie couple is lingering at the register: He is beach-blond, she is petite and an exotic mix of something gorgeous. Whenever he speaks to her, he lifts up his arms and folds his hands behind his head: He is shy — she thrills him. His white terrycloth shirt rides up every time, and in the slender torso of this beautiful young man I can see the little boy stretching in his highchair, while waking slowly. Gently.

The sound of some old song comes on over the radio. It makes me think of a Christmas-themed lullaby and of slow mornings that are always lovely that time of year.

And this morning could be lovely — if only we could keep quiet and still for a while.

The radio switches to some dissonant jazz tune and the could-be-lovely girl, juggling her devices at the corner table, picks up her iPhone again and switches languages:

“That guy is such an asshole,” the petite creature ahead of me quotes discreetly.

I chuckle. I get the couple’s attention; but then realize half of my face is buried in my heavy knit scarf. So, I lift my chin and chuckle again.

“Are we playing Cowboys and Indians this morning?” the man at the register says to me when it’s my turn to order. I look up: He’s wrapped a cloth napkin around the bottom half of his face and smiles at me, with only his eyes.

I smile; then, realize that half of my face is invisible. So, I lift my chin — and smile.

“Where is your bathroom — or don’t you have one?!” the could-be-lovely creature interjects quite loudly, and with a single gesture of tongs from the mustached Navy chef, she storms off in that direction. We wait for the passing of her busy noises and the departure of her griefs through the front door.

And when she does depart, her table is taken over by an older couple with a beautiful blue-eyed boy under their care. He can’t be older than five, is barely awake and clutching a robot of military green. The robot is wrapped in a baby blanket.

They could easily be the boys’ grandparents, but they don’t dote or baby-talk. Instead, they are acutely aware, and they answer to his needs quietly.

At first, I brace myself: The boy could be quite lovely. But he could also be a complete riot: His physical beauty could fully justify his bratty habits. But he slides into the chair near mine, stretches the corner of his baby blanket on the edge of the table and rests his blond curls on it. The older woman sits next to him and buries her gentle hand in his hair.

The beautiful blue-eyed boy stretches, while slowly waking.

The couple grabs a newspaper from the counter: She reads the news, he skims through the Calendar section. They speak to each other, quietly; while the boy drifts in and out of sleep. When the food arrives, he shifts. The mother (she IS his mother after all, I figure out) begins helping him with his utensils.

The boy whimpers: He wants to do it himself. With a single gesture, the woman calms him — “Hush-hush, my gentle little man…” — and the family returns to their quiet morning routine.

Ah. This morning could be lovely, still. And it could be quiet. And I wonder for how long I can keep holding on, today, to this gentle start of it — and to this gentle pace.

Nothing, as in: I wake up late due to the afternoon sun blazing through my window. (The shades are helpless against this blazing.) I wake up to sunlight, and not to the monotonous tune of my alarm clock. I wake up to another day. (I’m helpless against waking.)

And when I do wake up, I stay in bed, despite the habitual bounce of my thoughts about the stuff that needs to get done. It’ll get done. Eventually. So, I stay in bed, reading.

The more fragmented my schedule, the lesser are the chances of my reading a book, these days. A whole book: Not a book of vignettes by a Parisian melancholic, or of poetry by an angry American alcoholic. A book, a long novel, or an epic story hasn’t rested in my palms in a long time. I still read though — but of course! — in between the fragments of my day. But I never read in bed.

But today: I do. Because I’m doing — nothing.

Yes, I’m doing nothing:

Nothing, as in: I take a scorching hot shower with a bar of handmade soap with tea tree oil and oats. It smells like the pine tree bathhouses that my people would heat up for each other, late at night — before a generous dinner but after the hard work — and they would come out with red and calm faces of innocence, long ago traded in for survival.

I take the first sip of my black coffee: I’m feeling peckish, I must say. I haven’t eaten the first meal of the day, and I’m about to skip the second. But there is no way I’m cooking today: Because I’m doing — nothing.

Nothing, as in: I walk to the farmers’ market. I do not drive. Instead, I accompany my kind man who tells me the fables from his previous day. His long stories. As we walk, we study the neighborhood: The homes that sit at an architectural intersection of San Francisco and Venice Beach. Homes with abandoned toys in their play pins and enviable tree houses decorated with Chinese lanterns. Homes with old vintage cars in their gravel covered driveways and disarrayed trash bins at the curb. Homes I’ve promised to build for my people — my kind people — and my child.

I watch an older couple approaching us: I wonder what I would look like, when I’m older. And I shall be older, certainly. The romantic notion that I would die young has expired with forgiveness.

And now: I want to live, in perseverance and stubborn generosity; and every day, I want to start with a clean slate on the board of my compassion.

What time is it? I have no clue. I do not own a watch and my cellphone has been off since the very early hours of this morning, when I was just getting to be bed after a night of seeing old friends and playing cards until we began to feel drunk from exhaustion.

I think of them — my friends, my kind people, my kind man — as I walk, and I can see the white tents the hippies and the hopefuls have pitched behind a plastic barricade. They’re all so specific, I get inspired to see them in a book:A long novel about perseverance and stubborn generosity; an epic story in which its heroine travels toward her forgiveness.

“When you forgive — you love.”

Someone else has written that in a romantic story about dying young. I don’t want to do that: I want to live.

Yes, I want to live.

We purchase things that only speak to our taste buds: Black grapes and persimmons. Sun-dried tomato pesto and horseradish hummus. Sweet white corn and purple peppers. I watch a tiny curly creature with my baby-fat face and a unibrow dancing around her mother’s bicycle, in a pink tutu and leopard uggs. I look away when she tickles my eyes with tears only to find a brown face, even tinier, resting over a sari-draped shoulder of her East Indian mother. Live, my darling child. I want you — to live.

My kind comrade and I walk over to the handmade soap store: I want more smells of home. We both notice her: She is African and tall — PROUD — with dreadlocks and a pair of bohemian overalls. How could you not notice her: Her face belongs to a heroine traveling toward her own forgiveness.

“Are you doing okay?” a very gentle gentleman asks us from behind the counter.

I smile into the jar of eucalyptus body butter and nod: Zen.

“How could they not be okay, here?” the heroine making a rest stop on her journey toward forgiveness says.

We laugh. All four faces in this store are calm. They are calm with innocence long traded-in for survival. But then again, maybe it’s just compassion. (And I’m helpless — against it.)

“I was riding my motorcycle this morning,” my proud heroine starts telling us a fable from her previous day. Her long story.

At the end of it, we would laugh. Not wanting anything from each other, but having so much to give back, we laugh with lightness.

We laugh — with nothingness, in a Kundera sorta way.

I think: We are no longer innocent. But that’s quite alright, I think.

Because with enough forgiveness, compassion often takes its place. Compassion takes the place of innocence. And that’s quite alright, I think. And I want to live — a life of that.

Trying to write at a coffee shop: This nomadic lifestyle of mine is slowly taking a toll on me.

The joint that I’ve chosen is not on the beach, but it carries the name of one. And it comes with a specific array of noises. Noises and egos.

They aren’t corporate egos, thank goodness. They belong to life-long outcasts and beautiful, quirky kids who are stubborn and mad enough — to keep at their stories: At their art.

Like this tatted-up boy right here, with bleached hair: He is smaller than me. He walks in through the glass back door, smiles sheepishly; grabs the handle before the door slams and shuts it, slowly. Quietly. He knows there are others here — stubborn and mad enough to keep at their stories. To keep at their art.

Just look at him! I betcha he’s got a story or two, and he’s most likely figured out his medium by now. So, he’s certainly gotten himself a hefty ego. And that ego nags — until each story is told: on paper or on his skin, or braided in between the strings of his guitar.

The boy leaves. I notice that the bleached hair is actually brushed into a well-sculpted mohawk. He does the handle thing again, looks at me, from the other side of the glass door; smiles sheepishly. Thank goodness — for his specificity!

Shit! I’ve gotta focus. I still haven’t written, this morning.

I walk over to the counter. I can tell by the way one barista is bickering at the other, under her breath, that the two ladies aren’t really getting along. This one: brown, pretty, with striking gray eyes is yanking the handle of the espresso grinder like she means it. I catch myself wondering if her wrist hurts at night, and if that shoulder of hers needs healing. Does it makes her moan, at times, about “her fucking day job”? Does it fuel her stubborn madness — to keep at her stories? To keep at her art?

Just look at her! By the way she arches her eyebrows and tightens her mouth, I know she’s been doing this gig for a while. And she’s really good at it. There is a routine in her movements:

Yank, yank, yank, yank. Swipe across with a single forefinger. Press down the tamper, tap the side with it. Press down again. Brush away the loose grinds. Get ready to brew.

This girl is a virtuoso! She’s found art in the most mundane of occupations.

Okay. Shit. Focus. I still haven’t written, this morning.

The girl taking my order is also the one working the milk steamer. She is a bit bossy. Some may even call her “bitchy”. “Tightly wound”. “With prickly temperament”. (I would know: I get called those things — all the fucking time!) I watch her maneuvering each pot of steaming milk above a paper cup.

She reminds me of a woman conductor who has once taught me music: That older creature of grace was an untypical occurrence, an exception in the world of classical music. This one — must be some sort of an artist as well. And I wonder if she’s got the balls to be a pioneer, in her very specific thing.

“Hey, now!” she says to a young skater boy who struts into the joint, through the glass back door. He has a headful of African curls tamed with a backward turned cap.

And on top of that, there is a hysterical rockstar screaming over the radio speakers. I’ve been in enough of these joints, over the course of my nomadic lifestyle, to have learned good music. This — is not good.

The radio goes silent. I look back: The bossy counter girl is messing with the radio stations. A sweet reggae beat takes over.

The boy in a hoodie, at the table next to mine, starts nodding his messy head. His face is wrinkly with pillow marks, but it’s intense. He is so young, yet already so specific.

Just look at him!

Shit!

Focus!

Write!

The tatted-up boy with bleached out hair returns to use the bathroom. He does the handle thing.

The bathroom door opens: A youth of about twenty rolls out of it, in a wheel-chair. Damn!

He passes me. His face is kind. He smiles.

The girl with earplugs gets up, packs up quietly. Leaves through the glass back door. Does the handle thing.

A Mexican stunner walks in: Long black hair, butterflies instead of eyelashes. She smiles at me, full heartedly. Does the handle thing.

There is so much beauty in specificity! There is so much beauty in compassion! And it makes it so much easier — to keep at my art.

“Shit! Let me get this for you!” I leap out of my seat, to help a lovely young mother who’s trying to get through the glass back door, with her hands full.

I smile, hold the door; say: “No problem!” And quietly — do the handle thing.

Like the creature of Gisele’s height but Kat Dennings’ build who walked into the mysteriously lit coffee shop yesternight and made me lose track of my thoughts. She wore a pair of tight, dark blue jeans (which made her sound like a song); and red patent leather high heels. Her tailored black shirt was unbuttoned on top, generously revealing her lace-bound breasts. And by the time I slid my gaze up to her exotic face, I swear I began feeling a bit hazy-headed.

“Jeez!” my male companion said over a cup of his Moroccan Mint hot tea, as if blowing his breath over the steaming surface. Perhaps, he was blushing; but I hadn’t looked at his face for seemingly a million minutes by then.

“Mazel tov!” I mumbled, followed the creature with my eyes. Then, once she plopped down into the aged couch next to us, I concluded with a “Damn!” — for emphasis.

Her face. I didn’t really see her face: The rest of her upstaged it.

But in a story — any story in which she would dictate her own reappearance — I would give her the face of an angel, if angels were born on the coasts of Brazil or India.

Certainly, she would have droopy eyelids with velvety eyelashes, best worn by those smart girls who are always either in the midst of a compassionate tear or a self-deprecating prank. I would give her a well-carved nose, but on the larger side. It would be Roman-esque, resonant of the young Sophia Loren. And it would juxtapose well in relation to her chin which was in the shape of an Italian prune plum.

The lips… I normally don’t pay attention to the lips. I just know that most of the time, they complete a woman’s face perfectly. Sometimes, the mouth is worth mentioning, but I must see it in action first. It’s the manner and the breath with which the mouth makes out words that gets my attention. But by that point, I’m most likely so stricken by the girl’s smarts, that again, I don’t pay attention to the lips.

Yesternight, I didn’t really see her face, but it is her face that would guide me into the fiction of her. Into the fantasy.

I prefer writing about strangers. Because it’s easier, I think.

Like when, the other night, I stood in line behind a tall boy who wore a white tee and a pair of slim fit, ripped jeans, he could’ve easily existed — in someone else’s fiction. But then, his shoes caught my attention: They were black, lace-up boots with missing laces. Scuffed and dusty, as if he had just walked miles through sand and perseverance to get here, they reminded me of a pair I once photographed up in the desert. Those other boots were parked outside a cabin inhabited by a group of outcast artists, and a blue-eyed boy with a Siberian husky. The boy and I wouldn’t sleep that night; and when the dawn illuminated miles and miles of sand ahead, he peeled on those same boots and rode away on his motorcycle. The blue-eyed husky would follow him, and I would wish I had memorized his face a little bit better.

The other night, the bottoms of the boy’s ripped jeans where tucked inside each boot, but somehow I knew that despite the nonchalant appearance, it took some careful thought and manipulation to get the job done. I slid my eyes up his long legs, past the aesthetically, half-tucked tee, and along the shapely back. I didn’t really see his face, but in a story — any story in which he would dictate his own reappearance — he would have a beauty mark above his lips. And he would be blue-eyed, of course.

Yes, I prefer writing about strangers. Because it’s easier, I think.

Like the calm old woman in a burgundy housedress and slippers that reminded me of my grandmother’s pace, the other day: I saw her walking a girl child, up a tiny hill in Griffith park. It was overcast, and the fog of the marine layer refused to burn off. The two of them walked slowly, and I could tell by the curvature of the woman’s spine — over and above the child — that she was quiet and listening to the stories made out by the little mouth. And so, she reminded me of my grandmother’s pace.

The kiddo wore a gray mouse outfit: with ears, and a tail; onesie feet and all. And by the way she walked, with more assurance than the adult in her company, as if leading the way; and by the way she swayed her tiny right hand to punctuate her stories; and by the way she gripped her grandmother’s index finger with the other — she made my heart moan with memories.

I didn’t see the child’s face. Neither did I see that of the grandmother.

But in my story — any story in which they would dictate their own reappearance — I bet they would have the details of the face I see in my mirrors.

Because I tend to memorize the faces of my loves with my heart. And I prefer writing about strangers. It’s easier, I think, for my empathy to speak — and for my loves to dictate their own reappearance.

“What you’re thinking… you are becoming,” he said, holding too lengthy of a pause for an effect.

What he wasn’t realizing was that the habit of breaking-up his thoughts with these loaded silences shot down any effect he was aiming for: It deflated the importance of his statements, and any urgency in his inspirational speech — to a room full of actors — was going out of the windows.

Although, come to think of it, there weren’t any windows in the joint at all: We were packed into a black-box theatre of a classroom, like an army of revolutionaries planning a revolt in a basement, somewhere in the jungles of South America. Everyone was an artist of sorts; quite a few writers — and even a spoken word poetess (she was rad!).

There was a handful of newbies in the room: You could tell by the way they surveyed everyone with their impressionable and somehow petrified glances. (Oh, to be new to the chaos of LA! I wouldn’t want to relive that joy.) The rest of us — were seasoned residents of the city, not yet veterans of the industry. But we had all been around the block by now — around several blocks, actually, in search of casting spaces and parking spots.

Some seemed jaded, and they sized-up all the previous speakers while never uncrossing their arms for the entirety of a 2-hour lecture. There were some that loved to hear the sound of their voice; so, every question of theirs turned into a tiny, brooding monologue. An older actress from Chicago, a bit tipsy from the free wine, had been hollering from the front row as if she were listening to gospel: Such humanity! (She was rad!)

Pretty girls — of those, there was plenty. That’s the one thing guaranteed in LA-LA: Perpetual beauty that either humbles and inspires — or saddens with its dispensability.

Anyway, he was saying:

“What you’re thinking… you are becoming.”

The guy was quite tall, slightly on the stocky side. His non-immaculately white shirt was untucked, with its top half unbuttoned down to his undershirt, also non-white. He wore jeans and insecurities galore.

Half way through the evening, he took over the job of announcing the speakers from the evening’s MC.

“Who IS this guy?” I caught myself thinking every time he got up, lingered by the director’s chair in the middle of the stage and hogged our time with his prolonged, miserable pauses.

Standing in the corner of a packed room, I had been studying the audience for nearly two hours. There were a couple of faces I recognized. A few seemed quite familiar; but then again, as a seasoned resident of LA-LA, you begin to lose track of origins. And you catch yourself thinking:

“Do I know you?”

“Have we met in a constellation of classes and workshops happening at every minute and in every neighborhood of this city?”

“Have I seen you in a commercial, or in a waiting room for that commercial’s audition?”

“Or, have I simply bumped into you while we both circled around the blocks, in search of casting spaces and parking spots?”

A man with Jeremy Irons’ face caught my attention, in a corner of the classroom. You don’t forget a face like that. (He was rad!) But then again, I’d been around the block too many times by now — around many blocks, actually — and I had long begun losing track of origins.

“So… you just gotta…” the man in a non-immaculately white shirt was hanging onto his silences, on stage.

He made some sort of a peculiar gesture with his hand.

The speakers who had preceded him — not necessarily seasoned residents of LA-LA, but definitely veterans of the industry — were quite inspiring. Passionate, eccentric and honest, they had spoken of their love for the art — and their advocacy of the artists. They — were rad!

It’s an unusual thing here, in this city. Back in New York, packed into black-box theaters, one comes to expect talks about the art of it all. Because there, we prefer to be think of ourselves as craftsmen — artists of sorts — not businesspeople.

But in LA-LA — it’s all about the business! And in a constellation of classes and workshops happening at every minute and in every neighborhood of this city, we agree to collect the crumbs of information qualified as networking.

“Because you never know!” they tell us.

So, you learn to surrender. You better!

You better surrender to the unexplainable chaos of the industry. You better learn to accept yourself as a seasoned resident of this city. You better let go of all expectations and stop counting the favors and the debts other people owe you: No one owes you jack shit!

It takes time and an open mind — to survive here.

It takes a passionate heart to keep bringing the craft into the rooms full of businesspeople; and that heart has got to keep at it, despite having been around several blocks, in search of casting spaces and parking spots.

It takes discipline and humility to become a working artist — a veteran of the industry — not just a seasoned, bitter resident.

It takes a love — for the art!

And my own happiest discovery about the business is that thankfully, it still takes GRATITUDE — to persevere.

I had been awake for less than ten minutes, yet I was already having a gratitude overload.

In comparison to my own bed at home, this creation underneath me better resembled a cluster of clouds. It had engulfed me so quickly last night, I couldn’t even remember my last words. Or my last thoughts. But I was pretty sure, it had something to do with home.

I fell asleep with my window shades half drawn; and now, I could see the fluffy marine layer floating above what looked like a prehistorical forest. They stretched for miles — these dense clusters of clouds — blocking the sun, yet dissipating quite quickly; and they slid through the tops of this quirky flora: Palm trees amidst ancient pines decorated with some dainty lime-green growths that looked like the hair of mermaids.

(Um, ‘scuse me: But is this where nymphs and pixies come to play?)

Right past this playground of magical creatures, the Ocean stretched for miles — into the horizon, from where the fluffy marine layer seemed to be crawling. Around here, the waves were untamed by piers, or any other signs of humanity’s collective ego; and they were gigantic. The Ocean thrashed against cliff rocks, modestly populated by idillic homes. No two homes looked alike, but they inspired a stream of thought that I couldn’t pinpoint last night. But then again, I was pretty sure it had something to do with home.

All throughout the day, the Ocean roared and hissed; and at night, it sang a chesty lullaby about the opposite shores it had licked on its way here. The glorious monster was intimidating — and endless! — and only the fluffy marine layer could have known where it was coming from; or where it ended.

There was one small patch of land where I could approach it closer, on foot, without having to climb down cliffs. I had to walk in shoes, though, because the beach was covered with moonstones and sea glass. No sand.

(Um, ‘scuse me: But is this where Aphrodite spilled a chest of her jewelry?)

I did try to get my feet in the water. Having climbed over a lagoon circumvented by seaweed and lily pads, I kept my eyes right on the horizon, from where the fluffy marine layer seemed to be crawling. On the opposite side of this calmer pool of water, young boys were taking turns swimming to shore. One of them reminded me of my son: a brown, fearless rascal.

At one point, my hand slipped off the rock and I tested the water: It was warm and velvety.

(Um, ‘scuse me: Is this were the sirens come out to gargle their throats and soothe their tired vocal cords.)

On the other side of my climb, a family of brown people started running to the shore.

“Look! Look!” the fearless rascals were ahead of their adoring mother, leaping over the moonstones, pointing at the shiny surface right past the hissing, crashing, foaming waves.

The Latin face of their father meant business, but he did soften a little when he saw the skin of my exposed stomach: I was just about the same color as his woman.

I too began moving in the direction of the migration, looking right at the horizon from where the fluffy, now scattered marine layer seemed to be crawling. The water closer to the shore was playing patty cake with sun rays; and the entire surface seemed as luminous as a mirror.

(Um, ‘scuse me: Is this were Neptune finds his reflection while brushing out his graying beard after having breakfast?)

With my eyes, I followed the direction of the tiny brown fingers. But all I could see was: The Ocean playing patty cake with sun rays, right into the horizon. The fluffy layer had dissipated almost entirely, and only a couple of feathered brushes reminded of its short existence.

But, oh! Something had just jumped out of the water — look! — and it curved its shiny back. But before I could figure it out, it blinded me with its shine and dropped back into the Ocean.

The Latin face of their father meant business, but even he softened a little at the sight of all this glory.

I never reached the water yesterday. Instead, I stood: mesmerized, blinded. All along the cliffs behind Moonstone Beach I could see idillic homes. No two homes were alike, but every one — was lovely.

My own home: Not the home I have now, but the one I was about to find elsewhere in the world. And I was making a bet that it would be on a shore very much like this one: Where dolphins could play babysitters to my brown, fearless rascals; and where every night, the Ocean would sing them chesty lullabies about all the other magnificent shores it licked on the way here.

My run through a wildlife reserve didn’t last for longer than thirty minutes, yet I was already having a gratitude overload. Every sign of life left me more and more exhausted with excitement:

The single otter that surfed on its back through the roaring, hissing, crashing, foaming waves made me laugh every time its nonchalant white snout resurfaced above.

The boisterous chipmunks with focused faces were making a meal out of unidentifiable scraps they found in the layer of succulents. I thought of the way I had always eaten apples: with their core, sometimes using their stems as toothpicks, afterward. Would my brown, fearless rascals inherit my quirky ways?

And oh, how magnificently the red-tailed hawk soared above! Every time the wind picked up, it negotiated the flow with its black, oily wings; then kept cutting through the air.

What fearless grace!

And in the field of dried weeds, a couple of dogs were beside themselves: dashing back and forth between their adoring masters and the rest of the untamed life.

I had been in this town for less than a day, yet I was already having a gratitude overload; all thoughts — leading home.